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Fire-Starting Checklist

Build, light, maintain, extinguish. The four-stage fire process every camper should know, printed front and back.

Single-sheet printable · front & back · Letter / A4 · Free with email signup

A camp fire works in four stages - build, light, maintain, extinguish. Skip the last one and you're how a wildfire starts. Run all four every time.

The three-tier stack

1 · Tinder

Anything that catches a flame in seconds: dryer lint, birch bark, wax-coated cotton balls, fire-starter cubes, fatwood shavings.

Quantity: a baseball-sized bundle.

2 · Kindling

Pencil-to-thumb-thick dry sticks. Snap, don't bend. Splits of seasoned firewood work too.

Quantity: a forearm-thick bundle.

3 · Fuelwood

Wrist- to forearm-thick split logs. Buy bundled at the camp store - never transport from home.

Quantity: 2-3 bundles per evening.

4 · Lighter / matches

Bic lighter, stormproof matches, or a ferro rod. Bring two redundant sources - at least one waterproof.

Quantity: 2 sources, kept dry.

Build & light

  1. Confirm no fire ban. Build only inside an established ring. Clear a 3-foot radius down to mineral soil.
  2. Lay the tinder bundle in the center.
  3. Build a teepee of kindling around the tinder, with a 2-finger gap on the windward side as the door.
  4. Light the tinder bundle from underneath through that windward gap. Never light from above.
  5. Once the kindling is burning steadily, add small fuelwood pieces to the structure - don't smother the kindling.
  6. Add larger fuelwood as the fire establishes. Maintain airflow; small adjustments only.

Teepee vs log cabin

Teepee

Best for: starting fast, smaller fires, dry conditions. Burns hot and quick, collapses inward.

Log cabin

Best for: long-burn evenings, cooking grates, wet conditions. Slower to start but steadier.

Extinguish protocol - drown · stir · drown

  1. Drown. Pour water across the entire fire bed, not just the visible flames. Listen for hissing - keep going until it stops.
  2. Stir. Use a stick or shovel to mix ashes, embers, and unburned wood. Embers buried under ash can stay alive for days.
  3. Drown again. A second full pour. Touch the back of your hand to the ashes - if it's warm, the fire is not out.

Never: burn trash, plastic, foil, or pressure-treated wood · use accelerants · leave a fire unattended · trust the rain to put it out · build a fire in burn-ban country.

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What you get

  • The three-tier wood stack: tinder, kindling, fuelwood - sizes and quantities
  • Teepee vs log cabin build comparison
  • The light sequence - under the tinder bundle, not above
  • The drown-stir-drown extinguish protocol with safety call-outs
  • Letter / A4 sized, front & back, one-color print

Use it for

  • Hand to a kid old enough to build their first fire
  • Carry in a glove-box first-aid kit as a quick reference
  • Brief a co-camper before a trip

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